The way no one cared

Planet of the Daleks is a proper Dalek adventure story. It is a fairly enjoyable serial and there are a couple of especially inspiring moments. It is not however the triumphant return it could have been for writer Terry Nation who had at this point not contributed to Doctor Who since 1965/66's The Dalek Master Plan. I imagine this story would have worked better in front of a general 1970s audience. However, from the perspective of a modern day fan with access to the whole of Doctor Who's back catalogue, it is difficult to get beyond the fact that we have seen all this before.

Jo Grant was brilliant in this story, especially in episode one where her scenes are almost entirely just her. She carries the show incredibly well - she has never looked more comfortable in the role. The way Nation writes these scenes is commendable and ambitious. I wish that the themes of her gathering information for The Doctor and looking after our sickly hero had carried on further through the story. Remarkably similar ideas are far better realised in Paul Cornell's Human Nature/ Family of Blood (which I'm sure was influenced by Nation's script).

On the other hand - the Thals are unbelievably boring in this story. I can't be the only person to have found it at times almost impossible to distinguish between the characterisation and look of each of the "non-Taron" male Thals. Rebec, the female Thal is written terribly and gets very poor treatment from her male counterparts, who seemingly blame her for being a woman on a number of occasions. It was not Rebec's place to be at war, she was a "distraction" for Taron which could jeopardise the mission. All of these ideas were delivered with bile-like dialog.

The Spiridons are fantastic as an invisible force, we have a beautiful scene with Jo being cared for by this intriguing un-seeable creature called Wester. Regrettably, once the purple rugs are thrown on them they just look stupid - it completely throws you out of the story. Why do the Spiridons not just throw off their rugs when the Dalek's are not looking? We know that some of them have the instincts to try and overthrow their evil leaders.

I was impressed with the number of Daleks that they managed to fit into this story, it was exciting. The miniature Dalek props looked great for the most part. I loved the jungles and the squirting poisonous plants. These elements gave this studio bound show a surprising visual flare. My favourite visual idea to come out of Planet of the Daleks is "molten ice", I thought it was a really neat concept from Nation and was very well realised on screen.

As is often the case with companions love interests, the buildup was rushed, unbelievable and a bit flimsy. Jo's star crossed lover apropos of nothing decides he wants Jo to come home with him, but of course it does not occur to either of them for him to go back to Earth instead of Skaro... Side note, but Skaro is portrayed as fairly neutral planet in this story, rather than a thing of terror in a constant raging war/ Dalek control - has that ever been the case before or since?

Perhaps my greatest problem with this adventure (which I really didn't hate, but just didn't love) was that it is all about placing bombs in various places, which even in Pertwee's "action era" is just not what I like about Doctor Who.

Not the most original Dalek story, but it's brilliant fun. The Daleks are at their most evil, with the pepperpots having cooked up deadly bacteria, and the Thals get an interesting development from their 60s days, with them being decidedly more violent as opposed to pacifistic. However, it's a shame that the story doesn't use the concept of invisible Daleks presented in this story more, as it's a really strong idea that's abandoned early into the narrative.

A barely serviceable story and one of the least memorable set of Doctor Who episodes I've encountered, especially when it comes to the Third Doctor Era. There's nothing specifically bad about it, their just isn't a lot of great content to grapple with. It very much feels like a boring rehash of past Dalek stories, particularly "The Daleks." The stuff with the Thals really just bored me this time around more than anything, while something just felt off with the scenes and the sets. It just all felt cheaper and more phoned in compared to stronger Dalek adventures and really just comes across as lacking against what I've come to expect with this Doctor and this production team at their best. Also missing some of that more essential character work, or at least delivered in a way that doesn't leave a mark like even other, Third Doctor stories. Jo really feels like she could have been any female companion, when that wasn't what I've liked about her up until this point. The chemistry between Jo and Latep really wasn't there for me and in comparison to how Manning normally bounces off the Doctor this was kind of hard to get through. Even some other weaker ones do this a lot better than Planet of the Daleks, in my opinion. I think in some ways this story is worse than some other more spectacularly bad Doctor Who content out there - at least that stuff sticks in your memory and leaves you with some kind of emotional reaction. Planet of the Daleks just felt like nothing.

Little bit dull, if I have to be honest. The Doctor had a pretty decent speech in part 6, and I enjoyed the scene with the very-clearly-miniature model Daleks but ultimately not enough plot to fill 6 parts